Source: Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention
Cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women worldwide, is an important public health issue. There were more than 493,000 new cases diagnosed
and 273,500 deaths from cervical cancer in 2000. Approximately 85% of these deaths occurred in developing countries, and in some parts of the world cervical cancer claims the lives of more women than pregnancy-related causes. This condition affects not only the health and lives of women, but also their children, families, and their community. This extended impact is often undervalued when setting health priorities and requires greater consideration by policymakers.
We have the tools to act. Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable and treatable cancers, since it takes many years to develop from detectable precursor lesions. We have evidence-based interventions for effective early detection and treatment. This knowledge has been used in many developed countries by well organized programs over the past 50 years. These efforts have resulted in a remarkable reduction in mortality and morbidity from cervical cancer.
Over the same period, however, we have seen little or no change in developing countries. Some of the main barriers here are the lack of awareness among stakeholders, lack of cervical cancer control programs and absence of country-tailored guidelines for best practice of cervical cancer prevention and control.
The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomes this initiative from the Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention (ACCP) to provide a manual for program managers
at regional and local levels in developing countries. It draws upon their collective experience from implementing research and demonstration projects using new
approaches to screening and treatment, and it does so in a variety of geographic and sociocultural settings and for a range of resource levels.
This general, how-to manual responds to the fundamental challenge of moving from policy to actually organizing, implementing, and monitoring newly developed programmes or strengthening existing cervical cancer prevention and control programs. It complements WHO’s managerial guidelines for National Cancer Control Programs, and WHO publications on Cervical Cancer Screening in Developing Countries, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)/WHO Handbooks of Cancer Prevention, Volume 10: Cervix Cancer Screening, and the upcoming WHO Comprehensive Cervical Cancer Control: A Guide for Essential Practice for health care providers.
The ACCP manual is part of a comprehensive resource package based on current evidence and encompassing policy, clinical practice, and service delivery. The
package is an ideal toolset for WHO Member States to help increase the effectiveness of their efforts in their fight against cervical cancer.
Catherine LeGales Camus
Assistant to the Director General
Noncommunicable Diseases
and Mental Health
Joy Phumaphi
Assistant to the Director General
Family and Community Health